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On the Force of the Latin Prefix Vz or Ve in the Composition of 
Nouns and Adjectives. By the Rev. Archdeacon Wru.iams, 
F.R.S. Ed. Rector of the Edinburgh Academy. 
(Read 3d March 1834.) 
Tue Society has lately been delighted with the discovery of 
organic remains in our vicinity, which prove, that, at some distant 
period of unrecorded time, the fertile plains of Mid-Lothian must 
have furnished food and habitation to beings very different from 
those which now draw life and enjoyment from their productions. 
Yet it must be regretted, that, in the conclusions derived from the 
existence of such remains (with the exception of a few general 
principles, leading us to regard with deeper feelings of awe and 
reverence Him who has made all things so wonderfully and fear- 
fully), we have little with which we can sympathise, and still less 
that can link our existence with that of those of which we see 
nothing but these imperishable monuments. I confess, however, 
with the partiality naturally felt by every man for that study to 
which he may have principally devoted his time and attention, 
that I regard with far deeper feelings those fleeting sounds— 
those exex zegoev]a—which, after passing from lip to lip uninjured 
during the lapse of so many ages, are, when carefully examined, 
found to have been component parts of those languages, falsely 
denominated dead, and which can be usefully adduced in illustra- 
tion of the written records of those mighty spirits who have as yet 
as far surpassed us in the science of mind, in the purity of their 
taste, and the perfection of language, as we have surpassed them 
